Oh yea?! My kid’s in Occupy Wall Street and your kid ain’t going no place unless the country listens. Your 1% better stop being leeches. That includes yer pipe dreams for the future millionaire. Wake up and smell that 99% coffee yer drinking!

[OJ. From Florida! Not Brazil where it’s cheaper! So gimme 75 cents more.]

Listen ya schlubs. I wanna read something.

What is it, Tea Party lit?

No, but if ya din’t know, some of it sounds like them. It’s a newsletter from the Staten Island Democratic Association, a position paper.

Joe/Jose! A refill, before the filibuster.

Yeah, me too. Boy, if this attacks my kid’s future….!

It’s about all our futures. Drink ya joe and listen:

[Mi amigos; I listen too, for my citizenship test.]

O.K. But silencio! You guys, too.

Yeah, yeah. Go ahead; read.

“Right wing economics misinterpret the reality of capitalism while romanticizing it at the same time. For example, a wholly “free” market exists only in the abstract or on a very localized or small scale. Furthermore, market forces alone cannot satisfy long term societal needs, especially those that address the general welfare, for example: environmental needs, infrastructure building and maintenance, education, national defense, social security, health care, etc. as they are the proper province of government.

“Trickle Down” economics suggests that if the wealthiest keep much of their income they will necessarily create jobs with their greater wealth. But the results from over 30 years of employing this philosophy to determine tax policy, especially the last 10 years, proves it to be a false notion and poor economic policy. In both the short and the long term, few jobs can be shown to be the product of allowing the rich to keep proportionately more of their income than the middle class. On the other hand, tax cuts for the working and middle class are virtually always stimulative of consumer spending, and increased demand creates more jobs. Furthermore, current tax policy with its accelerated movement of wealth upward, away from the average citizen, makes them less able to purchase goods and services and thereby to generate economic activity within our borders.”

Big deal. Republicans and Democrats in the State Legislature just did that with the governor: a little higher rate for the super rich; a tax break for the middle class. D’ya think Congress might ...?

[ALL: Ha,ha,ha…!]

Hey. Liberals; Tea Party. They sound alike. Populist anger!

Like I said; big deal. Whadda they gonna do about it?

Well, let’s see… Here; here’s what they say:

“Progressives want to see capitalism succeed for everyone and democracy requires that it does. We appreciate that the incentives, opportunities, creativity and rewards for productivity in our system produce the most robust of economies. But history has shown again and again that unregulated, unfettered capitalism runs off the economic rails and crashes through cycles of boom and bust. In addition, continually increasing wealth inequality threatens to create a politically and economically disenfranchised majority. This is difficult in most societies and intolerable in those that consider themselves democratic. Preventing society from becoming overly stratified requires a thoughtful application of meaningful regulation so that power, both economic and political, is not overly concentrated in too few hands.”

Wow! Better keep liberals and the Tea Party divided. Imagine if they combined that populist energy against corporations. No wonder cultural issues like birth control keep ‘em at each other.

Yeah. Why’s birth control a political football. I mean, it’s 2012 not 1965?

It’s a political wedge issue. Blind the average joe to tax unfairness. Every presidential year, some religions use cultural issues like sledge hammers. Scares some; angers others.

Hey, enough yakkity yak. I gotta go do my power walk with the missus.

[As our three amigos leave the diner]

Hey Jose! Here’s $5 bucks. Better declare it on your taxes before ya send it back to madre/padre.

Yea. Not like the 1percent. They pay 15 percent, lower than their secretaries with tax breaks for sending jobs overseas.

I told ya, my kids gonna be one of them rich business types ....

Yea, and I told you; read Paul Krugman on income disparity…and ....

[Gracias amigos, for the tip. I’m voting; first time! And I listened.]